Dr. James Griffin is the chairperson of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He oversees the clinical activities of more than 150 medical oncologists caring for adult patients at DFCI and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In addition, he also oversees extensive clinical and laboratory research activities that seek to understand the most fundamental causes of human cancers and translate these discoveries to improved therapies.

James is a leader in the field of leukemia research and published over 350 articles on this subject. He has been on the editorial boards for multiple oncology journals and was the editor-in-chief of the American Hematology Society’s journal, BLOOD, for five years. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

A seventh-generation Irish American, James is descended from William Griffin, who migrated from the north of Ireland to Connecticut in the 1730s. William settled as a farmer in upstate New York, and his line has remained in the New England area ever since. James was born in Syracuse.